This invention pertains to safety means for woodworking power tools, and more particularly to a device to hold a workpiece against the guide fence of such a tool as the workpiece is moved past a rotating cutter.
Woodworking power tools are notably dangerous, principally because cutting tools for wood cut at relatively high speeds and are thus apt to cut operator's misplaced hands quickly. Power saws, shapers, routers and the like are particularly difficult to guard because the operator typically uses a hand to feed the workpiece past the cutter. The object of almost any safety device for such tools must be to keep the operator's hands at a safe distance from the cutter.
In order to rip-cut wood properly on a power saw the piece being cut must be held firmly against the guide fence as the piece passes the saw. The piece must also be fed through the saw. My co-pending application, Ser. No. 718,578, filed Jun. 20, 1991 proposes a safe feeding mechanism. The purpose of the present device is to hold the workpiece against the fence. Although it is described in conjunction with a power saw, it will be obvious that a similar problem exists in a shaper or router where a workpiece is also longitudinally moved past a rotating cutter although the axis of rotation may be vertical rather than horizontal. In such a machine, the same danger is present, and a device embodying the present invention may also be useful.